Coin roll dispensing and boxing apparatus



May 19, 1970 G. A. MOBLEY 3,5

COIN ROLL DISPENSING AND BOXING APPARATUS Filed on. 12. 19s? I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. GEORGE A. MOBLEY [l5 3'2 63252 BY M QM ATTORNEY May 19, 1970 ca. A. MOBLEY 1 1 COIN ROLL DISPENSING AND BOXING APPARATUS 7 Filed Oct. 12, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. F/G. "6' GEORGE A. MOBLEY ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,512,333 COIN ROLL DISPENSING AND BOXING APPARATUS George A. Mobley, Spartanburg, S.C., assignor to Deering Milliken Research Corporation, Spartanburg, 8.0., a corporation of South Carolina Filed Oct. 12, 1967, Ser. No. 674,918 Int. Cl. B65b 57/14 US. C]. 53-61 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention is directed to apparatus which receives rolls of wrapped coins and automatically supplies a certain predetermined number of such rolls to a machine which boxes a greater predetermined number of rolls for delivery to the consumer. Basically, the apparatus includes a coin chute, an automatically controlled coin gate and a piston actuated pusher member to push a predetermined number of rolls of coins into a boxer after they have been released by the gate.

This application is directed generally to the field of coin handling but in particular to apparatus to automatically supply and box a predetermined number of wrapped rolls of coins.

There is presently available equipment to automatically box a number of wrapped coin packages. A number of these machines are supplied rolls of coins, one at a time, and must perform a number of independent operations each time a roll of coins is presented to the machine. Further, it is necessary that such machines operate fairly rapidly to obtain an acceptable production rate resulting in constant wear and tear on the machine due to the rapid and constant movement of the parts.

Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a coin handling apparatus which will automatically supply a multiplicity of rolls of wrapped coins to the boxing apparatus.

Another object of the invention is to provide coin handling apparatus which will box rolls of wrapped coins at an acceptable production rate without excessive wear and tear on the machine.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a coin handling machine which will efficiently and economically box rolls of wrapped coins at an acceptable production rate.

Other objects and advantages will become readily apparent as the specification proceeds to describe the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the wrapped coin roll delivery apparatus showing the coin chute full of rolls of coins;

FIG. 2 is an end view of FIG. 1 showing the coin gate down;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the wrapped coin chute and boxing apparatus showing the delivery chute empty and the coin accumulator full;

FIG. 4 is an end view of the coin chute of FIG. 3 showing the coin gate open;

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FIG. 5 is a top view of the coin chute and boxing appagatus with a portion of the coin chute broken away; an

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of the control system.

Looking now to the drawings and especially to FIGS. 3 and 5, the new and improved apparatus consists basically of a coin chute 10, a coin package pusher 12, a coin package accumulator 14 and a filled box conveyor 16.

The coin chute 10 consists of an inclined entrance chute section 18 and a horizontal delivery chute section 20. The inclined entrance chute section 18 is inclined at an angle of approximately 45 with the horizontal delivery section 20 to provide proper flow for the rolls of wrapped coins 22. Mounted underneath and adjacent the top of the chute section 18 is a microswitch 24 which has an actuator arm 26 which projects through an opening 28 in the bottom of chute section 18 for reasons hereinafter explained.

In the preferred form of the invention the inclined chute section" is so designed that the sixth roll of coins in the inclined section 18 will contact the microswitch actuator arm 26 when there are five rolls of coins 22 in the horizontal chute section 20. To hold the coins 22 in the chute 10 until it is desired to deliver them into the accumulator 14, a coin gate 30 is provided. Coin gate 30 consists of a plurality of fingers 32 which are connected to support member 36. Support member 36 is in turn connected to plunger arm 38 of piston 40' which is controlled by valve 42.

Coin package pusher 12 is a U-shaped member (FIG. 5) with elongated portions 44 and 46 forming the legs of the U. The ends of the portions 44 and 46 towards the accumulator 14 are chamfered or tapered for reasons hereinafter explained. Pusher 12 is actuated by flanged plate member 48 attached thereto by suitable means such as screws 50. The flanged portion 52 of the plate member 48 is suitably connected to the end of plunger rod 54 of double acting cylinder 56 secured to the underside of plate member 58. The action of double acting cylinder 56 is controlled by a double solenoid actuated four-way valve 60. When the pusher is actuated, the pusher 12 slides on the bottom of chute portion 20 and is guided by a rod member 64 projecting at one end through an opening 66 in the base of the pusher 12 and secured to the plate member 58 at 68.

The accumulator 14 and the conveyor 16 work together to box the wrapped rolls of coins from the chute. The accumulator 14 includes three microswitches 70, 72 and 74 for reasons explained later, a platen member 76 to support rolls of coins and a ram member 78 to ram rolls of coins into the box 80 on the conveyor 16 when the accumulator 14 is filled with the desired number of rolls of coins.

OPERATION As discussed previously it is preferred to accumulate five rolls of coins at one time in the accumulator and have at least six rolls of coins in the inclined chute portion 18 thereby requiring at least eleven rolls of coins in the chute 10. The rolls of coins in the chute 10 can be Wrapped in any suitable manner and supplied to the chute by any conventional means.

Assuming now for the sake of discussion that there are five rolls of coins 22 in the chute portion 20 and six rolls of coins 22 in the inclined chute portion 18 the microswitch 24 will be held closed to energize the coil 82 to actuate the time delay switch 84. At the end of the time delay the switch 84 will pull in and energize the coil 87 to shift the four-way valve 66 to supply air to the left hand side of the double acting cylinder to cause the plunger 54 to move towards the right against the five rolls of coins in the horizontal chute section 20. After the pusher has moved a short predetermined distance the microswitch 86 will be released from contact with the pusher and move to the position where it energizes the solenoid coil 88 to actuatelithe three-way valve 42 to raise the coin gate 30. The pusher 12 then continues its stroke and pushes the five rolls of coins 22 ahead'of it onto-the platen 76 in'the accumulator 14. Just before the end of the stroke of the pusher 12, the first roll of coins into the accumulator actnates microswitch 72 which in turn actuates the drive for platen pusher rod 90 to raise the platen in the upward direction. Looking now to-FIG. there is shown a pair of spring loaded support members 92 which are located above the top of the horizontal chute section so thatas the platen 76 with five rolls of coins I therein moves upwardly they will act against the underside of support members 92 and swing them against the side of the accumulator against the bias of their springs (not shown). Once the plat n 76 has cleared the support members they will move downwardly to once again assume a horizontal position. Since the platen 76 is narrower than the distance between the support members 92, the rolls of coins in the down stroke will remain on the support members 92 While the platen 76 returns to the bottom position as shown in FIG. 3.

When the platen 76 has reached the top of its stroke the cam member 94 will close microswitch 74 thereby energizing solenoid coil 96, reverse the four-way valve 60 to supply air to the right hand side of the double acting piston 56 and exhaust air from the left hand side of the piston 56. As the pusher returns to its inoperative position it will again engage the microswitch 86 which in turn breaks the circuit to the solenoid coil 88 to cause the three-way valve to reverse itself and cause the coin gate 30 to close. When the pusher has returned to its inoperative position five more rolls of coins will roll into the horizontal chute section 20 and the operation will be repeated until the accumulator is full.

When the accumulator 14 is full as shown in FIG. 3 the microswitch 70 will be energized on the upstroke of the platen 76 by contact of the upper layer of coin rolls 22 and the ram 78 (FIG. 5) will be activated to push all the rolls into the box 80 on the conveyor 16. The conveyor 16 will then remove the box 80 which is filled with rolls of coins 22.

It should be noted that the tapered or chamfered surfaces 100 on the nose of the pusherlegs 44 and 46 tend to block ofi the six rolls of coins in the inclined chute section 18 very soon after the pusher 12 has been actuated and thereby prevent additional rolls of coins from entering the horizontal chute section 20.

Itshould be further noted that the number of rolls of coins is so selected in relation to the depth of the accumulator 14 so that if less than the predetermined number of rolls are in the horizontal chute section 2% the microswitch 72 will then not be actuated and the platen will not rise, thereby preventing the boxing of an incorrect.

I claim:

1. A coin handling apparatus comprising:v acoin roll chute, means to retain coin rolls in said chute, a coin roll accumulator operably associated with said chute, means to box a predetermined number of coin rolls, means to supply coin rolls from said accumulator to said coin roll boxing means and means operably associated with said coin chute and responsive to the level of coin rolls in said chute to automatically supply a pre-selected number of coin rolls to said accumulator when a predetermined level of coins is detected.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said coin chute includes a horizontal section and an inclined section, said means to supply rolls to said accumulator being operably associated with said horizontal chute section and responsive to the level of coin rolls in said inclined chute section.

3. A coin handling apparatus comprising: a coin roll chute, means to retain coin rolls in said chute, a coin roll accumulator operably associated with said chute, means to box a predetermined number of coin rolls, means to supply coin rolls from said accumulator to said coin roll boxing means and means operably associated with said coin chute to supply a pre-selected number of coin rolls to said accumulator, said coin chute including a horizontal section and an inclined section, said means to supply rolls of coins to said accumulator being operably associated with said horizontal chute section, said means to sure ply coins to said accumulator is an elongated pusher member, means operably associated with said inclined chute section to actuate said pusher member and means operably associated With said pusher member to actuate said coin roll retaining means after said pusher member has been actuated to allow said pusher member to push a plurality of rolls of coins into said accumulator.

4. The structure of claim 3 wherein said accumulator includes a means to cause said pusher member to return to its original position after said pusher member has supplied aplui'ality of rolls of coins thereto.

S. A coin roll supply system comprising: a coin roll chute, coin roll gate means to retain coin rolls in said chute, a coin roll accumulator, coin roll pusher means operably associated with said chute to push rolls of coins into said accumulator and control means responsive to the level of coin rolls in said chute and operably associated with said chute and said pusher means to automatically actuate said pusher means and raise said gate means to allow said pusher means to push rolls of coinsinto said accumulator.

6. The structure of claim 5 wherein said gate means includes a plurality of fingers projecting into said other chute section to engage a roll of coins therein.

7. A coin roll supply system comprising: a coin roll chute, coin roll gate means to retain coin rolls in said chute, a coin roll accumulator, coin roll pusher means operably associated with said chute to push rolls of coins into said accumulator and control means operably associated with saidchute and said pusher means to actuate said pusher means and raise said gate means to allow said pusher means to push rolls of coins into said accumulator, said pusher means being a substantially U-shaped memher with the legs thereof projecting toward said other section.

10. A coin roll supply system comprising: a coin roll chute, coin roll gate means to retain coin rolls in said chute, a coin roll accumulator, coin roll pusher means operably associated with said chute to push rolls of coins into said accumulator and control means operably associj ated with said chute and said pusher means to actuate said pusher means and raise said gate means to allow said pusher means to push rolls'of coins into said accumulator, said coin roll chuteincluding at least two sec- 5 6 tions, one of said sections b ing mounted at an angle to 2,917,876 12/1959 Clapp 5359 X the other of said sections, said pusher means being 3,154,188 10/1964 Cross 5361 mounted ad acent said other section in shdlng relationship 7 FOREIGN PATENTS therewith, said pusher means being tapered at the front thereof to prevent rolls of coins from said one section 345,005 960 Great Brltaln.

from falling into said other section when said pusher 5 THERONE CONDON Primary Examiner means is actuated.

References Cited R. L. SPRUILL, Assistant Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS US. Cl. X.R.

1,824,432 9/1931 Hendry 531 9 X 10 53164, 244; 214-6 

